Family owes roughly $1,500 for utilities, 'wear and tear' and legal costs, condo corporation says
CBC News (abridged)
Chris Glover 27 May 2020
A Mississauga family says it's "ridiculous" their condo corporation is making them pay a $30-a-day "occupancy fee," because their daughter came home to shelter in place with them during the COVID-19 pandemic — but the condo board says the fee is appropriate and the payments have been postponed until at least June.
"Thirty dollars a day is just ridiculous and we just want to know what the rationale for this is, and where the money is going," said Roshaan Wasim, 26.
At the end of February, the condo corporation at 135 Hillcrest Ave. notified residents in a letter obtained by CBC News that due to an "increase of water consumption" and a "substantial increase of long term visitors," it would charge any visitor staying longer than two weeks an occupancy fee of $30 per day.
The fee would start March 1, the corporation said.
In March, as the COVID 19 outbreak was getting out of control in New York City, Wasim left her apartment in Queens to return to the condo her family has lived in for 17 years to put her "parents' minds at ease."
Paying fee is tough while parents laid off, Wasim says
Prior to that "unilateral" decision, Wasim says, the long-term occupancy fee for visitors to the building was $30 a month.
For staying with her parents and two sisters for roughly a month from early April until early May, her family has been told they owe roughly $1,000 for the occupancy fee, and $536.75 in fees incurred by the condo corporation for drafting the legal letter.
Wasim says both her parents are off work and are receiving federal emergency benefits due to the pandemic.
"To ask for $1,500 out of the blue at any time is a lot, but I think particularly in these circumstances when not just my family, but a lot of folks are stretched," she said.
Condo corporation 'acted appropriately,' its lawyer says
In a statement, the condo corporation's lawyer, Denise Lash of Lash Condo Law, wrote the daily occupancy fees "cover the increased utility costs and wear and tear on the common elements."
"This corporation acted appropriately" when it introduced the occupancy fee for long term visitors in 2003, as a way to deal with "overcrowding of units," Lash wrote.
"The recent notice," she wrote, "related to issues with a number of residents breaching the occupancy standards bylaw and the condo corporation wanted to make sure that residents were aware of what this would mean."
But condo lawyer Audrey Loeb, with Shibley Righton LLP, told CBC News "you can't just pull a number out of a hat."
"The notion of charging without any justification $30 a day, and without an invoice to support that, is in my view an unreasonable expense," Loeb said.
"What I think they are doing is just fining the people for having an extra body in their apartment," she said, "which the Ontario government has said condominium corporations in Ontario cannot do."
Family charged fee for 4-year-old, Syrian refugee mother-in-law
Radwan Altaleb is part of a group of roughly 15 residents from the building who have hired a lawyer to argue against the fee.
After fleeing the Syrian civil war in 2012 with his wife and two daughters, Altaleb moved into 135 Hillcrest Ave. In 2015, they had their son.
Since there were more than two people per bedroom in the two-bedroom unit, he was told he would have to pay the monthly occupancy fee for his son.
"They've been accumulating this amount and sending it through their law firm," Altaleb said.
Then, last year his mother-in-law came to Canada as a refugee and now she also lives with him. Altaleb says he's being told he has to pay $30 a day for her, as well.
That's $1,800 a month he says he doesn't have and never plans to pay.
Residents CBC News has spoken to say they would like more communication from the condo corporation and an emergency meeting to discuss the occupancy fee.
Postponed payments due to COVID
"The board is not aware of any emergency meeting or request by the owners," said Denise Lash, the lawyer for the condo corporation.
"As a result of the pandemic, the Corporation chose not to enforce this payment because some residents had family members occupying due to COVID-19 and has postponed the payment until June and possibly later," Lash wrote.
But Roshaan Wasim worries the postponed fee continues to accumulate for her family and for many other residents.
"I don't see how that's a compromise at all. June 1st is imminent. I mean we're going to have to pay it next month and it's not like our financial situation is suddenly going to be ok next month."
https://bit.ly/2XLF2sz
Comments from readers
Theo Crane
Reply to @Misty Michaels: The actions of that condo outfit would discourage many from even considering the purchase of a condo--any condo, not just one in that benighted building. Condo boards change, condo rules change--so you could buy one now and then discover, down the road, that there would be a massive surcharge if a family member--adult son or daughter, for example--joined you, or you got married, or you had a baby. Imagine what you'd get dinged for if you were to marry someone who has children. The composition of a family evolves over time. But in a condo, apparently, you have to freeze your family life the day you buy into it. Ugh. (Wonder if there are any condo outfits that send money to you every month if you get divorced and the ex- moves out?)Jeremy Kemp
All condo's should have occupancy limits of no more than two people per bedroom, anymore and it places undue stress on condo society as well as being unhealthy and unsanitary for the condo with excess people living in it.Radwan Altaleb
Reply to @Jeremy Kemp: $30 a day!! Do You think it is reasonable?
In 2014, Goldview management asked me to pay $12,600 for sofa damage in their party room. If you were in my place , you would not tolerate it.
Condo lawyers respond
Pulvar on condos
Can Condos Charge an Occupancy Fee? (abridged)
From the desk of Shawn Pulver, Partner Macdonald Sager Manis LLP
As I understand it, additional occupants have been allowed to reside in the unit since the COVID-19 outbreak without such charges. These charges in question, however, predated COVID 19.
I also understand that the residents in question were in contravention of the Ontario Building Code and the bylaw, which is a significant factor not referenced in the article.
These type of daily charges might not be universally popular, but they seem well founded in this case based on the building’s concerns about extra use of the common elements and utilities, and the additional wear and tear of the building that results from having extra occupants. The by-law in question provides the authority to charge occupancy fees.
https://bit.ly/36LSYXz
From Twitter
Why has the condo Board raised its occupancy fee from $30 a month to $30 a day? In my opinion, overcrowded units may be a big problem in that corporation and a dollar a day per person was not sufficient to discourage the practice.
Is $30 a day a strong detterent? Obviously. Has the Board gone too far and if so why did they think this had to be done?
The timing could not have been worse. Since mid-March, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused many grown adults to move in with relatives. The virus makes holding owner meetings difficult, except by video conferencing. (Not practical in many condos.)
The economic hardships caused by unemployment is creating difficulties for many Canadians. When the provincial restrictions are removed, not everyone will be able to go back to work. Many jobs will have disappeared.
What will this condo Board do then? Extend the grace period? Try to collect?
Will the owners of the overcrowded units be able to replace the directors and will the new Board eliminate the overcrowding Occupancy Fees and forgive the outstanding penalties? Who knows.
—H. Marshall